We had two delightful days at St Simons Island – a charming residential
seaside community with shops and restaurants, natural areas, and historic
sites.
 |
| St Simons Lighthouse |
We were targeting Fort
Frederica National
Monument where friends of ours volunteer, but we had
some free time beforehand so we letterboxed and strolled through Wesley
Woodland Walk. We visited at just the right time as the azaleas were in full
bloom – a perfect spot for lunch.
A Celtic cross commemorated John and Charles Wesley’s brief time
in the area. They both struggled in Georgia, but later gained notoriety
in founding the Methodist church and writing hymns.
Then we went to Fort
Frederica National Monument.
Fort Frederica teaches about the time in the 1700s when Great Britain and Spain
vied for the land between St Augustine and Charleston. The British
established a fort and settlement at this contentious time; it later became
obsolete when Britain
procured the territory. Only foundations and several ruins remain, but the park
fills in the history.
We watched the movie, took a ranger-led tour, and strolled
around the grounds, but the highlight was listening to the living history
demonstration. Granted the park volunteers happen to be friends of ours, but
they did a fantastic job of living the history, teaching about the people of
the fort community, and engaging the audience.
Our friends, Tom & Karen, are full-time RVers who
volunteer throughout the country with the National Park Service. They are gifted
teachers who especially love being interpretive volunteers. We follow their
blog. We joined them for church, enjoyed meals at two St Simons restaurants,
attended a delightful string ensemble concert, toured the island, partook in yummy
pie baked over their fire, and spent some time reconnecting.
We even got into the St Simons spirit.
Back at our campsite, we were so excited when we saw an
Escape 19 trailer two campsites from us. Since we bought ours, we had never met
anyone with the exact same trailer.
 |
|
an Escape 19 next to a
Bigfoot trailer next to our Escape 19
|
Come to find out that they not only have the
same model trailer, but they also are retired, empty nesters who full-time in
their little RV and blog about it, too. Wow! There is someone else in the world
who lives like us. :-)
campground: Blythe Island
Regional Park,
18 miles (33 min) from Fort
Frederica, St Simons
Island
